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Senegal, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen

In early April, Senegalese President Macky Sall returned from a trip to Saudi Arabia and indicated that he would support the Kingdom’s military campaign in Yemen (find some basic context on the war here). Yesterday, Senegalese media reported that Sall will soon deploy 2,100 soldiers to Saudi Arabia. Senegalese Chief of Defense Mamadou Sow has already left for Saudi Arabia at the head of a delegation of senior officers, in order to make preparations and begin working with Saudi counterparts. Senegalese troops have served in Saudi Arabia before, namely during the Gulf War. Sall’s administration framed the upcoming deployment as a contribution to protecting Saudi Arabia’s territorial integrity and defending Islam’s two holiest sites – indeed, it was interesting how strongly language of Muslim solidarity featured in the administration’s language, which also referenced Senegal’s membership in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and in the global Muslim community or umma. Sall’s message to the National Assembly, delivered yesterday by Foreign Affairs Minister Mankeur Ndiaye, can be read here in French.

The decision has occasioned some domestic criticism. A former chief of defense, retired General Mansour Seck, told a Senegalese newspaper that the deployment “could give us problems with our potential enemies, that is to say, terrorists.” Seck also said that the deployment will strain the country’s limited military budget and put some of the country’s best soldiers overseas at a delicate time. Opposition politician Mamadou Diop Decroix also criticized the decision, saying that Saudi Arabia “is not the victim of external aggression” and asserting that the National Assembly was not properly consulted. Even one member of the National Assembly who belongs to the president’s coalition said that “we must not exchange the lives of our soldiers for petrodollars,” alluding to the assumption that Senegal’s support in this military venture will ensure further Saudi investment in the country. So far, though, it looks like the deployment will proceed without major political obstacles.